Sunday, June 28, 2009

Why Medical Coding Company is More Beneficial then Hiring Medical Coder?

Healthcare industry is an emergent industry. Medical coding is one part of this industry. Every medical practitioner requires medical coding. There are two options for these; one is to hire a medical coder, second is to hire a medical coding company. Most of the time healthcare services vender is having confusion in choosing.

Hiring medical coders are not affordable for every healthcare service provider. It requires to setup proper infrastructure and equipment which costs you much higher. So assigning your requirements to medical coding companies is the better option. Medical coding companies help you out in various ways to boost up you efficiency.

How medical coding companies increase your productivity?

Your clinical staff that has some coding knowledge can manage your coding requirement. But this type of adjustment can decrease the efficiency of your staff. At the end of the day, the overall productivity goes down.

Medical coding companies help you to save time of your staff. This helps your staff to deliver with better efficiency. Also they become free from the boring coding work. Because they don’t have to do coding, they can more focus in clinical activities. This will result in to the more productivity.

How medical coding companies increase your profitability?

If coding is not done properly, you will not receive the reimbursement. There are more chances of claim decline by having miscoding. This type of error leads you to have loss in the practice. Ultimately your profitability decreases.

By having medical coding companies as your coding specialist, you can save lots of money. You can have all the facilities which require for coding without spending on them. You have skilled medical coder who offers accurate coding. Through proper coding, your claim gets approved faster and you will receive reimbursement quickly. By saving cost and having reimbursement quickly, you can increase the profitability.

Medical coding companies not only help you to increase productivity and profit but also help you to get best out of your practice. This creates your goodwill over your competitors.

Author: Timothy Rudon

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

10 Guidelines To Select A Medical Billing Vendor And Maximize Your Medical Practice

Poor in house billing system leads to unsettled insurance claims and the medical practice could run into financial problems.

There are innumerable medical billing service vendors who offer services that will free the time of medical professionals and ensure that money flow becomes trouble free and efficient. However, a medical billing vendor needs to be selected with care.

1. The first step is to do a survey and find out which medical billing vendor has a good reputation. Look for quality and efficiency a 10 % or greater improvement in quality means greater inflow of funds.

2. Never choose a vendor based on quote alone. What you need is an efficient system that works.

3. Look into scope of services. Does the vendor give comprehensive services? Does the system take care of appointment scheduling, medical records maintenance, SOAP notes, billing and so on. A complete system is more efficient in the long run than a billing only system.

4. Discuss in detail the medical billing vendor’s modus operandi. Find out whether the system in use is aggressive or defensive.

5. Understand the reporting system in detail and ask about aspects like data aggregation and analysis.

6. Avoid choosing a vendor based on quotes or presentation slickness. Check out their system that is already functional and make the effort of verifying references. Also contact the better business bureau to check whether any complaints are registered against the vendor.

7. Ask about technology is use and its compatibility with your computer systems. Think about expansion in future and whether the system can be upgraded. Find out if the technology is HIPAA compliant.

8. Choose a medical billing vendor who has a Code of Conduct in place and transparency in systems.

9. Look for aspects like data security protection, super bill online, online insurance claim editing and so on.

10. Ask for details like volumes handled, staff strength, responsiveness, the number of practices handled.

Be clear about whether your staff will need special training and how the medical billing system will be put into function. Be prepared for initial glitches and a period in which adjustments will need to be made. Ask for a trial period or to observe the process in another practice. The vendor may have a super efficient system but it is important that your staff is comfortable with the system too.

Medical billing systems bring several advantages to a practice and are being used world wide to smoothen out work processes. Technology has changed the way the world functions.

Be smart and choose a medical billing vendor with whom your medical practice will flourish and grow.

Author: Timothy Rudon

Source: http://www.1888articles.com

Outsource Medical Billing and Save up to 60%

PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 26, 2009 – Medical billing is the most needed task for each and every medical practitioner. Without this no healthcare practitioner can get money from insurance company. It is very tedious and time consuming non-clinical task. Most of the medical service providers outsource medical billing task to some company. It helps them to increase the satisfaction of patients.

Medical Billing-India offers outsource medical billing service with high accuracy. They also have skilled professional who can deliver quick and efficient medical billing at low rates. You can ask for FREE Medical Billing trial at http://www.medicalbilling-india.com/contact.php

There are various benefits of outsource medical billing:

Save Time: Medical billing is massive work. A medical billing firm can provide services which take off difficulty from you. Now you can focus on patients’ health.

Save Resources: If you are small practitioner, this is not possible for your staff to manage clinical as well as billing with expertise. You can’t afford to hire specialist to manage your medical billing. A medical billing company has skilled staff which can manage your medical billing issues very efficiently.

Extra Security: A famous thought “fraud come from within a company”. If you outsource medical billing, you can have outside peoples who manage your finance. If there is some discrepancy in your finances, medical billing company can find the fault.

Quick Revenue: Through outsource medical billing, you can get money quicker. With limited resources that is not possible to have billing, claim submission and follow-up within proper time. By outsource medical billing, your claims get submitted quickly and continues follow-up that will result in to quicker revenue generation.

Check out more about medical billing at: http://www.medicalbilling-india.com/medical-billing.php

Author: Ray

Friday, June 19, 2009

What is the Difference Between Medical Billing and Coding?

Medical billing and coding are vital parts of the billing process. From the time a doctor sees a patient to when the paperwork is forwarded to the insurance company, there are important steps that need to be performed. Every doctor visit results in the utilization of medical coding and medical billing skills - both are necessary for doctors and health care facilities to be properly reimbursed for services.

Here's how it works:

Medical coding includes the process of using specific codes to identify procedures and services for private billing, health insurance companies, government health programs, workers' compensation carriers, and more. A coder reads all documentation, such as a medical chart or transcription of doctor's notes, and assigns the right universal code based on their coding knowledge. The codes are entered into a form on their computer system.

Medical codes are based on diagnoses and procedures. Codes exist for all types of services, tests and treatments provided by a healthcare provider in a medical office, hospital, or clinic. The diagnosis is translated into an ICD-9-CM code; while the procedure is translated into a five-digit CPT code. Medical codes can encompass anything from a stomach ache to a broken arm - there are codes for everything!

Once the diagnosis and procedure codes are determined, the medical biller transmits the claim to the insurance company for payment. Medical billing includes the process of submitting and following up on claims to insurance companies in order to receive payment for services rendered by a health care provider. A billing specialist ensures that the patient and health insurance company are properly billed for all procedures. Approved claims are reimbursed, while rejected claims are researched and amended.

Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), billing specialists are required to send claims for reimbursement via electronic means. This has resulted in faster, more accurate payments from insurance companies. The use of billing software has also enabled medical billers to perform accounting duties and manage billing practices more effectively. Patient records, open claims and outstanding invoices are a mouse click away!

Medical billers and medical coders ensure that the billing cycle is smooth - from patients being billed the correct amount to doctors getting paid. Without them, there would be no way to complete, track and manage medical claims. Both billers and coders are essential to the financial well-being of an organization and the health care industry as a whole.

Author: Heather Brunson

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

Outsource Medical Billing: A Way to Gain Maximum

From past few years, there is boom in medical business. With this uptrend, there are some administrative difficulties for medical practitioners. Qualifying for the claim reimbursement is one of the most difficult tasks because of complicated process and claim forms. Outsource medical billing will surely help you to get out of this tedious process.

How you gain maximum by outsource medical billing?

Use option of outsourcing: Outsourcing is one of the great ways to get work done at low cost. This helps you to decrease the cost occurring for infrastructure, employees and maintenance. You can spend the extra money on development of staff, situate and key activities. Through outsource medical billing; practitioners achieve huge cost savings as well as expansion in business.

Hire skilled medical biller: You get knowledgeable and experienced medical biller. You can get work done through your admin staff, but there is huge possibility of wrong billing which costs you a lot. Hiring certified medical biller costs you much higher. Through outsource medical billing you can have knowledgeable and experienced medical biller with you.

Zero spending on Infrastructure: You can get access of proper environment and infrastructure for medical billing. Before hiring medical billing specialist you have to set up full-fledged infrastructure for them. It is the most costly component in any business. Just through outsourcing, you be free from setting up infrastructure and environment to do billing process.

Zero spending on latest software: The field of computer is updating constantly, software get upgraded with more and more facilities. These facilities increase the cost of software. This software increases the speed and accuracy of medical billing. Through outsourcing, you have special access for newest and costly software.

Time Consumption: Alternate (non-core) activities are always boring for medical professionals. They always avoid this type of work, but to maintain and move up the business this is must. Solution of this problem is medical billing outsourcing. This helps you to become free from tedious alternative activities.

That’s how outsource medical billing is a way to gain maximum.

Author: Ray Charles

Source: http://www.1888articles.com

Reasonably priced Medical Coding Specialist: Try Free Medical Coding Now!!!

PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 19, 2009 – Medical coding specialist is one of the high demanded professional in the healthcare industry. As per demand and supply rule – medical coding specialists are very costly to hire. They are essential for every healthcare provider to get paid at proper time. Mistake in coding will surly delay your payment and that costs you a lot. So you needs efficient medical coding specialist at low cost.

There is a company, Medical Billing-India, offering authentic medical coding services which meet all the major healthcare coding systems. They have such medical coding specialist who can manage CPT (Current Procedure Terminology), HCPCS (Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System), and ICD-9(International Classification of Diseases) very efficiently. They provide FREE medical coding service for trial to everyone who wants coding service.

You, as a healthcare service provider can get huge benefits through this type of medical coding services. Their medical coding specialist surely helps you out to derive the payment within timeframe.

Medical Billing-India is not only hiring the medical billing specialist but also give train to them. These types of training increase efficiency of the specialist which will very much beneficial to healthcare services.

Medical Coding Specialist will provide error-free and speedy coding service. This will result into the speedy acceptance of claim through public/private insurance company.

Company is also offering up to 60% of on medical coding services. There is also cost benefit through outsourcing medical coding to Medical Billing-India.

You can get benefit of efficient medical billing specialist through Free Trial offer of Medical Billing-India at: http://www.medicalbilling-india.com/medical-coding.php

Author: Ray Charles

Friday, June 12, 2009

Electronic Medical Billing Save Money by Improving Office Procedures

Electronic medical billing makes life easier and collections more successful in a medical practice. Questions about medical bills can be answered before the bill becomes past due because of quicker response times. Complicated payment procedure for insurance companies will no longer overwhelm a billing office.

The increased productivity in billing can be directly linked to the different kinds of medical billing software. Client server (CS) and application service providers (ASP) make up two types. Management of a client server requires configuration, back up, restoration, and upgrades after it is initially installed. In addition it consists of a central server and terminals linked to a local network. For these reasons client servers are usually more expensive.

Application service providers assure the latest in technology. The central server is located with the vendor, and data is exchanged via the internet. This minimizes time needed for troubleshooting and downtime. Electronic medical billing training can also be conducted online. The vendor is responsible for managing the technology, recovery, restoration, installations, and upgrades.

Post-payment audits by insurance investigators are less frequent with electronic medical billing. Increased cash flows come with more accurate and easy billing. Cost and productivity savings, including fewer clerical errors reduced office workload, and improved coding come with electronic billing. And electronic billing software offers benefits such as compliance requirements, financial and work flow controls, and accurate procedure coding for patients.

Many medical offices choose application service providers instead of local client servers because IT staff and equipment expenses aren't necessary. Yet further reasons for choosing application service providers are because of greater flexibility. The lack of equipment to install means the system is faster to implement, and the training of necessary personnel can be done online.

Electronic medical billing makes the billing process accurate and less susceptible to penalties. Built-in compliance protection prevents electronic billing software from committing fraudulent billing or coding practices or issuing duplicate bills. Federal and state enforcement agencies have brought legal action against medical billing offices. For this reason the compliance protection feature is crucial in the event that a post-payment audit triggers suspicion and causes a penalty to be accessed. Proper billing procedures and post payment audits are much easier.

Since technology often becomes outdated every three years the replacement costs of a client server needs to be considered. There are tax advantages to purchasing the client server equipment, but these may be offset by the reduced front end cash flow. An application service provider will charge a monthly service fee, but this is small compared to the sizable upfront investment needed to purchase a client server.

Electronic medical billing is a cost effective way to increase cash flow and guarantee billing compliance. Once you have decided on electronic billing, the next step is to choose which methods best suits your office. Both client servers and application service providers are a great way to get electronic billing onto your office.

Author: Carrie Nelson

Source: http://ezinearticles.com

What Are the Benefits of Outsource Medical Coding?

Most of the time Claim get decline because of improper coding done by medical coders. Without proper medical coding, it is very hard to get claim reimbursement easily. It is a process of giving special code to verbal description of disease, injuries and procedures. Insurance coding is one of the synonyms.

What are the Benefits of Outsource Medical Coding?

1. Cost Benefit: By outsourcing, you always gain cost benefits. You don't have to spend on infrastructure, hiring people and purchase of latest technological equipment, if you go with outsourcing of medical coding. This will decrease your cost up to 60%. You can spend this savings to upgrade your main business.

2. Better Accuracy: Accuracy does matter for acceptance of reimbursement claim. Insurance coding must be accurate to get clear idea about the process, tests done by patient. If it is not clear to the insurance company, there is always denial from them. So better accuracy will increase acceptance chances of your claim. Through outsource medical coding, you can achieve better accuracy.

3. Certified Coding Specialist: It is very hard to find certified coding specialist. You have to setup full infrastructure with enough equipment before hiring any coding professional. If you want to hire experienced certified coder, it will cost you a lot. It is wise decision that outsourcing of coding work and gets benefit of certified coding specialists at low cost.

4. Quality Audit: This feature makes your medical coding more accurate. Quality audit will increase the accuracy of coding. Through this type of services you get more accurate and speedy coding services. Your chance of getting compensation from insurance is near to 100%.

5. More Clean Claims: With the help of professional coder and quality audit you get cleaner claims. It becomes very easy to get the reimbursement from the insurance company. Through outsource medical coding; you get access of latest technology, trained coders, quality controller and proper environment for coding. All this helps you for clearing the claims cleanly.

6. Transparent Methodology: Most of the medical coding company offers transparent methodology. This type of services increases the trust of client for particular company. It also increases the reputation in the market.

There is always disadvantage of data theft while outsourcing but you can always come out of that by checking the reputation of firm in the market.

Arthur: Bea Arthur

Source: http://ezinearticles.com

Electronic Medical Billing with High Quality: Get Free Medical Billing NOW!!!

PRLog (Press Release) – Jun 12, 2009 – Several years ago, medical billing was done entirely on paper. But now medical billing is done through electronic equipment which will increase the efficiency and perfection. Electronic Medical Billing helps healthcare related bodies to obtain reimbursement easily and quickly.

Medical Billing-India, company providing efficient electronic medical billing services to all healthcare service providing bodies. They are having latest technological equipment to obtain fast, secure and accurate medical billing. They are offering FREE Trial offer for electronic medical billing.

Benefits of electronic medical billing services provided by Medical Billing-India:

• They are having latest technological equipment which enable client to have their billing easily and accurately.

• They hired certified medical biller and trained them for more accuracy to get effective output. The trained certified medical biller will help client to get speedy medical billing service.

• Experienced quality controller will help client to get high accuracy in medical billing.

• They are having experts who are having knowledge about USA government regulation and insurance company rules for medical billing.

• They are offering such medical billing which increases the acceptance chance of reimbursement claim.

• Highly secure procedure enables client to feel trusted about their privacy and can be more focused about their core activity.

• They provide timely billing and reimbursement which helps client to strengthen their financial condition.

• They are also offering savings up to 60% on medical billing services. This enables client to save more money.

You can check out more on Electronic Medical Billing and FREE Trial Offer at: http://www.medicalbilling-india.com/medical-billing.php.

Author: Bea Arthur

Friday, June 5, 2009

Medical Billing Information

Many people would like to work from home, but with the proliferation of stay-at-home scams and schemes it can be difficult to know the best positions to look for. Medical billing is one job that can be done from home that will bring in real income, and it requires real work.

Medical offices, private medical practices and hospitals all need to deal with medical billing information in the same way. Private insurance, Social Security, Medicare, and Workers Compensation all require a fair bit of information to be gathered, compiled and properly entered onto forms and submitted in order for these practitioners to get paid. Doctors, however, spend most their time dealing with patients and the paperwork of keeping detailed notes and charts on each patient. By the end of the day there are charts to dictate and papers to file and most doctors simply don't have the time and energy to spend time dealing with the hassles of calling on insurance claims during the work day.

This is where knowing medical billing info comes in handy for the person looking to work from home or even to work in an office doing medical billing. The job entails collecting information, formatting and submitting it properly, and calling the proper patients, doctors, authorities or companies when clarification or information is needed. Incorrectly filed paperwork will mean that doctors don't get paid, so having the right information is of paramount importance.

Though you can get all the information you need to learn to do the data entry and submission parts of this career from books and software packages, there is a lot that can't be learned from books alone. Working in an office and then transitioning to a home job is one avenue, though you can also go through a school or online program for certification.

The hardest part of a medical billing info career for many can be the hours spent on the phone dealing with a variety of private and public medical insurance entities. These are the skills that can only be perfected by the doing, and through advice from people who have been there and know the ins and outs of the insurance industry.

Filling out the forms is a matter of entering all of the patient's personal and insurance information, and then finding the correct medical billing codes for identifying allowable treatments and services performed. This billing code is standardized, and new books with updated medical billing codes are published each year. There are a variety of books available that list the codes for various specialties within different medical fields. Using the correct billing codes is one more factor for a doctor making the difference between receiving payment and not getting paid.

When dealing with medical billing info you will also need to know the HIPAA regulations that insure patient privacy. If you work from home, you will need to keep a back up of all of the medical billing info you compile for at least two years after the date of service.

Author: George Edmondson

Source: http://ezinearticles.com

Understanding Medical Billing

What is Medical Billing? Medical Billing refers to the process of submitting all the formalities when claiming some sort of funds with insurance companies to make payment to a healthcare provider for the services they rendered.

The process used in majority of insurance companies are identical no matter they are government companies or private owned.

Actually, when a doctor or a licensed healthcare provider delivers the treatment a patient, he/she no doubt wishes to be offered with a certain fee in exchange.

If a patient directly pays the medical fee to the physician, then no such claim is necessary, but in case the patient holds a medical health insurance, then it's the duty of physician to claim on the behalf of patient to the concerned insurance company so that he/she could receive the payment for the services offered.

Typically, a HCFA (a standardized format) is used either in electronic media or paper for billing record. It actually is an authorization ordering the insurer for making immediate payment to the concerned health care provider, but not to the insured one.

Once an insurance company receives the claim, they thoroughly determine whether or not they are liable to make payment for the benefits.

Medical biller is the one who actually generates the electronic record. The medical biller is greatly responsible for translating medical terminology, procedures, diseases, and diagnoses into the coded billing statements, such as ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes, entering patients' details into databases, mailing the billing statements of patients to the concerned insurance companies, checking for the payments received, and pursuing on for the unpaid insurance claim, if any.

Therefore, an educated, well informed, decent, and efficient medical biller is absolutely required for filing claims in a proper manner so that the odds of being rejected or disapproved can be totally eliminated.

Author: Yan Susanto

Source: http://ezinearticles.com

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